Benchmarks show volatile trade

The Indian equities showed a volatile trend in late morning session as worries over economic and political uncertainty and weak global cues led to broad-based selling by foreign portfolio investors. Sentiments seemed low on concerns of early polls and earnings. On the global front sentiments got dampened due to slowing growth in China, higher unemployment claims in the US and the European Central Bank keeping interest rates unchanged. Asian counters were mostly down ahead of US non-farm payrolls data amid rising concerns over the American economy. South Korean benchmark -- KOSPI Composite -- tumbled by over two percent after North Korea blocked access to its Kaesong joint industrial zone with South Korea for the second day running. Japanese equities were trading jubilantly after the Bank of Japan’s unprecedented monetary expansion.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in Oil & Gas, Realty and PSU, while selling was seen in FMCG, Power and Capital Goods sector. In scrip specific development, Oudh Sugar Mills , Dhampur Sugar Mills , Sakthi Sugars, Rana Sugars, Triveni Engineering & Industries, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries, Empee Sugars and Chemicals, KCP Sugar & Industries Corporation, Balrampur Chini Mills, Simbhaoli Sugar Mills, Bajaj Hindusthan , DCM Shriram Industries, Shree Renuka Sugar, Eastern Sugar & Industries and EID Parry (India) edged higher after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on April 4, 2013 approved a proposal to abolish the levy-sugar mechanism, under which private millers have to sell a specified quantity of the sweetener to the government at concessional rates.

In scrip specific actions, Voltas gained after the Tata group firm said it expects revenues from air conditioners to increase by 20 per cent in the current fiscal as it aims to clock 10 lakh unit sales. Reliance Communications surged after the under-sea cable arm of the telecom major, Reliance Globalcom, integrated Hawk Cable System with its global network in a move that adds capacity and will benefit customers in India, Middle East, Europe and the US. Hindustan Unilever soared on completely acquired detergent and soap manufacturer Aquagel Chemicals. DLF jumped after the company sold wind assets worth Rs 250 crore. DLF will close the deal on Karntaka power asset sales very soon. Titagarh Wagons gains after acquiring Titagarh Marine. Essar Oil shares zoomed on a report that the company has exited the corporate debt restructuring cell and that it would use the external commercial borrowing (ECB) route to refinance its debt.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5500 and 18,500 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was showing negative trend with advances to declines in ratio of 1144: 756.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18512.12, up by 2.42 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 18517.48 and 18446.53. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.47% and Small cap index was up by 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.48%, Realty up by 1.03%, PSU up by 0.75%, Auto up by 0.72% and Metal up by 0.60% while, FMCG down by 0.93%, Power down by 0.18% and Capital Goods down by 0.01% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 4.21%, Gail up by 2.44%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.86%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.64% and ONGC up by 1.63%.

On the flip side, HDFC was down by 2.13%, ITC was down by 2.05%, NTPC was down by 1.56%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.68% and TCS was down by 0.57% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Concerned over the deteriorating macro-economic conditions in the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor D Subbarao expressed the need for a stable price mechanism for ensuring sustainable growth in the long term as it would help investors and consumers to take informed decisions. Regarding the effectiveness of the monetary policy to deal with the current economic woes, Subbarao said that monetary policy should be effective to contain inflation and push the economy towards growth. It is important for the savings rate to go up and the government must improve quality of expenditure to contain the fiscal deficit and reduce the subsidies.

During an interview Subbarao said “the economic growth in FY13 was expected to be the lowest in a decade and we are going to have the highest current account deficit this year. Inflation has come off the peak but is still quite elevated and investment has decelerated”. The RBI governor was however optimistic about the economic growth in the future and said that India's growth story is robust and its growth drivers are all intact and if we do the right things from now we can achieve the high economic growth in coming years.  

During the April-February period of FY13, India's fiscal deficit was 5.07 trillion Indian rupees, or 97.4 percent of the FY13 target while, the deficit was 94.6 percent of the budgetary target in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,573.00 down by 1.75 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 5,577.30 and 5,555.15. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 4.42%, GAIL up by 2.45%, HCL Tech up by 1.88%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.81% and Rel Infra up by 1.73%.

On the flip side, Ambuja Cements down by 2.45%, ITC down by 2.15%, HDFC down by 2.04%, ACC down by 1.97%, and NTPC down by 1.86%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng tumbled 542.49 points or 2.43% to 21,795.00, KLSE Composite declined 5.44 points or 0.32% to 1,683.02, Straits Times slipped 8.85 points or 0.28% to 3,299.03 and KOSPI Composite was down by 33.97 points or 1.73% to 1,925.40.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite rose 12.97 points or 0.26% to 4,935.58 and Nikkei 225 was up by 306.68 points or 2.43% to 12,941.22.

Markets in China and Taiwan remained shut for the trade today.